Lost for words: developing treatment for dysarthria

Speech therapists turn to helping listeners rather than the speech-impaired.

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17th March, 2012

The late author and commentator Christopher Hitchens wrote last year about what it was like to lose his voice after oesophageal cancer ravaged his vocal cords. “Deprivation of the ability to speak is more like an attack of impotence, or the amputation of part of the personality. To a great degree, in public and private, I ‘was’ my voice.” People who suffer neurological damage can have an intact voice box, but might have difficulty controlling or co-ordinating the muscles required to speak. Their speech can become slurred and difficult to understand. This is called dysarthria; ...

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